Interior minister Rauf Aregbesola and the Controller General (C-G) of Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), Haliru Nababa, have said Abdulrasheed Maina is feigning ailments to aid his escape from lawful custody.
The duo stated this in their joint counter-affidavit opposing Maina’s originating motion filed before Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja.
In the application, dated and filed October 31, the duo said: “It has become glaring from intelligence report at their disposal that the applicant (Maina) only feigns the ailments for him to be taken out of the custodial facility to aid his escape from lawful custody.”
The Chief Superintendent of Correction, Diamond Bako, who was an officer in charge of the clinic at Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre, deposed to the application.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Maina, the former Chairman of defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), had, on October 17, filed a motion ex parte motion to get treatment.
Maina (the applicant) listed the minister and the C-G of NCoS as first and second respondents in the motion dated and filed on September 27.
The former PRTT chairman, who is currently serving an eight-year jail term at Kuje Prison for pension fraud to the tune of N2 billion, had told the court that he was suffering from a life-threatening disease in the prison and needed urgent medical attention.
The ex-pension reform boss prayed the court for an interim order directing the minister and the C-G, via their workers or agents, to immediately take him to a reputable and recognised hospital for treatment of his life-threatening diseases pending the hearing and determination of his originating motion.
Reacting, the respondents, in the counter-affidavit, said contrary to Maina’s claim, he was never refused access to medical services, but that Maina would not be allowed to hide under medical services to escape from lawful custody.
They described the medical reports he produced as “self-induced”.
“The exhibits attached to the affidavit in support of the applicant’s (Maina’s) originating motion only goes to shows that contrary to the claims of the applicant that he was denied access to medical facilities, the applicant had access to medical attentions at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, where he has severally been attended to; and the exhibits amply bore out these facts.
“Contrary to paragraph 13 of the affidavit in support of the applicant’s originating motion, there was no time the applicant collapsed in Kuje Medium Security Custodial facility…”
Following resumed hearing yesterday, Maina’s lawyer, Ibrahim Idris (SAN), informed that the respondents’ lawyer, Abdulmumin Muhammad, had just served him with his application.
“The applicant, on several occasions, made self-induced complaints about his health and he was taken (not rushed) to a specialised and reputable hospital for medical services.
“He was kept in the hospital for several hours without any sign of readiness on the part of the hospital management to attend to him.
“While in the hospital, he was visited by several friends and relatives who sat with him, chatted with him and he was engulfed in conversations with them, laughing occasionally, without any sign of any ailment and/or pain.
“When, after several hours of waiting and effort by the operatives of the second respondent (the NCoS C-G) to the management of the hospital to come forward and attend to him failed, it became obvious that the referral to the hospital was a mere gimmick to take the applicant out of lawful custody.
“It was at that point the operatives of the second respondent received a confidential, top secret intelligence report that the applicant must, as a matter of expediency, quickly remove from the hospital and return to the custodial centre; otherwise, armed gunmen suspected to be loyal to the applicant would strike and take the applicant away to an unknown destination,” they alleged.
“It was on the face of this high-powered spy, intelligence report bordering on possible plan to snatch the applicant away from the few operatives of the second respondent on the ground at the hospital, and in order to avoid this imminent danger, that the applicant was returned to the yard to forestall the danger of attack,” they alleged.
The duo also alleged that Maina, who was arraigned on October 25, 2019, on a 12-count charge, though pleaded not guilty, jumped bail after being granted the bail on health grounds.
They said Senator Ali Ndume, who stood surety for Maina, was remanded in Kuje Prison until Maina was rearrested.
The minister and the C-G told the court that Maina was only raising false health alarms.
Following resumed hearing yesterday, Maina’s lawyer, Ibrahim Idris (SAN), informed that the respondents’ lawyer, Abdulmumin Muhammad, had just served him with his application.
Justice Ekwo adjourned the matter till tomorrow for hearing.